Yoga Happens Every Day—Temper Tantrums And All

Mind Your Own Business

Learning to mind your own business
is a precious and rare skill,
and essential if you are to realize
true and lasting happiness.
Imagine. You are sitting there
enjoying a bite to eat
and you hear a couple arguing.
Suddenly, your mind is full of judgment.They shouldn’t act like that in public.That poor man–having to put up with sucha whiny woman!They shouldn’t be together.How dare they be so inconsiderate…
Like lightening your mind
pulls forth from your memory vaults
everything you’ve been taught
about social niceties
and you feel a sense of moral superiority
as you tell yourself
that you would never behave in this manner.
If you have trained
in being aware of your own awareness,
you might smile at such thinking,
acknowledge that you were just caught up
in a bunch of thoughts,
and go back to your meal.
You might feel compassion
for the two beings
who are having such a difficult moment,
remembering that you have been there before,
remembering what it feels like.
Your heart opens.
If you haven’t been training
in being aware,
you might actually believe your thoughts
and perpetuate the mentality
that leads to the very same discord
you just witnessed.
And besides,
while you were over there in that couple’s business,
who was minding you?
Who was there for you
to taste your food
and notice that you were being breathed by life?
Who was there to feel grateful
for how you are supported by the chair
that holds your body?
Friends,
mind your own business.
Someone has to take care of you,
might as well be you.
Don’t you have enough to worry about
without having to arrogantly assume
that you know how other people
should be?
Reality is always so much kinder
that our narrow interpretation of it.
If you want true and lasting happiness,mind your own business.